The widely acclaimed films of Wong Kar-wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. This study of Wong’s filmmaking techniques uses a poetics approach to examine how ...
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The widely acclaimed films of Wong Kar-wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. This study of Wong’s filmmaking techniques uses a poetics approach to examine how form, music, narration, characterization, genre, and other artistic elements work together to produce certain effects on audiences. Bettinson argues that Wong’s films are permeated by an aesthetic of sensuousness and “disturbance” achieved through techniques such as narrative interruptions, facial masking, opaque cuts, and other complex strategies. The effect is to jolt the viewer out of complete aesthetic absorption. Each of the chapters focuses on a single aspect of Wong’s filmmaking. The book also discusses Wong’s influence on other filmmakers in Hong Kong and around the world. The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai will appeal to all who are interested in authorship and aesthetics in film studies, to scholars in Asian studies, media and cultural studies, and to anyone with an interest in Hong Kong cinema in general, and Wong’s films in particular.Less

The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai : Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance

Gary Bettinson

Published in print: 2014-11-01

The widely acclaimed films of Wong Kar-wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. This study of Wong’s filmmaking techniques uses a poetics approach to examine how form, music, narration, characterization, genre, and other artistic elements work together to produce certain effects on audiences. Bettinson argues that Wong’s films are permeated by an aesthetic of sensuousness and “disturbance” achieved through techniques such as narrative interruptions, facial masking, opaque cuts, and other complex strategies. The effect is to jolt the viewer out of complete aesthetic absorption. Each of the chapters focuses on a single aspect of Wong’s filmmaking. The book also discusses Wong’s influence on other filmmakers in Hong Kong and around the world. The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai will appeal to all who are interested in authorship and aesthetics in film studies, to scholars in Asian studies, media and cultural studies, and to anyone with an interest in Hong Kong cinema in general, and Wong’s films in particular.

Following a biographical sketch of Wong Kar-wai, the introductory chapter identifies several fallacies about Wong’s cinema that the rest of this book seeks to redress. It explicates the dominant ...
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Following a biographical sketch of Wong Kar-wai, the introductory chapter identifies several fallacies about Wong’s cinema that the rest of this book seeks to redress. It explicates the dominant critical mode to which Wong’s films have been subjected – culturalist theory – and indicates some significant shortcomings in this model. At the same time, it advocates a poetics approach to Wong’s cinema, highlighting the relative virtues of a formalist and cognitive analysis. Finally, the chapter defines and discusses Wong’s distinctive “aesthetic of disturbance,” an auteurist trait that unifies Wong’s films at the levels of audio-visual style, plotting, narration, and genre uptake.Less

Wong Kar-wai and the Poetics of Hong Kong Cinema

Gary Bettinson

Published in print: 2014-11-01

Following a biographical sketch of Wong Kar-wai, the introductory chapter identifies several fallacies about Wong’s cinema that the rest of this book seeks to redress. It explicates the dominant critical mode to which Wong’s films have been subjected – culturalist theory – and indicates some significant shortcomings in this model. At the same time, it advocates a poetics approach to Wong’s cinema, highlighting the relative virtues of a formalist and cognitive analysis. Finally, the chapter defines and discusses Wong’s distinctive “aesthetic of disturbance,” an auteurist trait that unifies Wong’s films at the levels of audio-visual style, plotting, narration, and genre uptake.

The concluding chapter provides a detailed analysis of The Grandmaster, examining the film from the vantage point of the preceding chapters’ major emphases: music and visual style, story and ...
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The concluding chapter provides a detailed analysis of The Grandmaster, examining the film from the vantage point of the preceding chapters’ major emphases: music and visual style, story and narration, and genre. The chapter also considers the “uses” Wong’s films have engendered. It reflects upon Wong’s influence on local and “world” cinema, his aesthetic traits appropriated by directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Sofia Coppola, Xavier Dolan, Stephen Chow, and Wong Jing. Also discussed is the appropriation by critics pursuing particular theoretical and/or social agendas. Finally, the chapter reviews Wong’s place in cinema today, as a Hong Kong director increasingly being absorbed into the Mainland Chinese industry, and yet for whom the international festival and art-cinema market remains of prime importance.Less

Appropriations, Reflections, and Future Directions

Gary Bettinson

Published in print: 2014-11-01

The concluding chapter provides a detailed analysis of The Grandmaster, examining the film from the vantage point of the preceding chapters’ major emphases: music and visual style, story and narration, and genre. The chapter also considers the “uses” Wong’s films have engendered. It reflects upon Wong’s influence on local and “world” cinema, his aesthetic traits appropriated by directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Sofia Coppola, Xavier Dolan, Stephen Chow, and Wong Jing. Also discussed is the appropriation by critics pursuing particular theoretical and/or social agendas. Finally, the chapter reviews Wong’s place in cinema today, as a Hong Kong director increasingly being absorbed into the Mainland Chinese industry, and yet for whom the international festival and art-cinema market remains of prime importance.

The Conclusion returns to two canonical Asian American texts: Maxine Hong Kingston’s paired epics The Woman Warrior and China Men. The chapter rereads two key episodes in these works within Cold War ...
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The Conclusion returns to two canonical Asian American texts: Maxine Hong Kingston’s paired epics The Woman Warrior and China Men. The chapter rereads two key episodes in these works within Cold War contexts: Maxine’s torture scene, in which she recreates a scene of Korean War prisoner interrogation, in The Woman Warrior, and her brother’s service during Vietnam, which paradoxically secures their family’s American standing, in China Men. By demonstrating how attending to Cold War figuration can deepen and expand the politics of Asian American subject formation, the Conclusion underscores the complexity of maintaining selves through political attachment. The friendly offers a periodizing and politicizing lens for comprehending a range of literary acts of alliance. This study ends by insisting upon reading significant acts of self-making in expressions of Cold War political longings.Less

Conclusion

Josephine Nock-Hee Park

Published in print: 2016-07-01

The Conclusion returns to two canonical Asian American texts: Maxine Hong Kingston’s paired epics The Woman Warrior and China Men. The chapter rereads two key episodes in these works within Cold War contexts: Maxine’s torture scene, in which she recreates a scene of Korean War prisoner interrogation, in The Woman Warrior, and her brother’s service during Vietnam, which paradoxically secures their family’s American standing, in China Men. By demonstrating how attending to Cold War figuration can deepen and expand the politics of Asian American subject formation, the Conclusion underscores the complexity of maintaining selves through political attachment. The friendly offers a periodizing and politicizing lens for comprehending a range of literary acts of alliance. This study ends by insisting upon reading significant acts of self-making in expressions of Cold War political longings.